Aberdeen caught in an Athens ambush

Aberdeen endured a miserable start to their Uefa Cup group stage campaign as Jimmy Calderwood's side went down to a crushing defeat in Athens.

After a closely contested first half in which Giannis Goumas headed Panathinaikos in front, two second-half strikes in the space of four minutes from the Greek international duo Dimitris Papadopoulos and Dimitris Salpingidis completed a convincing win for José Peseiro's team. The Dons struggled to create clear scoring chances and they have it all to do in their three remaining matches, the next of which is against Lokomotiv Moscow at Pittodrie in two weeks' time.

"We missed a few chances and we are disappointed with the first goal from a set piece," said the Aberdeen midfielder Barry Nicholson. "We have a home game next so we have to get the three points. There are a few young boys in the squad and it's a different environment for them."

The hosts started strongly, winning two corners inside the first three minutes, but a Dons counter-attack in the fourth minute should have resulted in the visitors taking the lead. A neat passing move saw Nicholson release Ricard Foster down the left and he skipped past Mikael Nilsson before whipping in a low centre which arrived at the feet of Chris Clark through a crowd of bodies. Clark's first-time effort fizzed narrowly over the crossbar, though.

Aberdeen were then made to pay for that miss in the 11th minute when they fell behind to a goal from a set piece.

Dame N'Doye won a free-kick from Andrew Considine's tackle in a dangerous position on the right. Goumas beat Considine to Andreas Ivanschitz's free-kick at the near post to glance a header past James Langfield and into the bottom left-hand corner.

The Athens side continued to press forward and the visitors had Langfield to thank for a fine low save from N'Doye's shot six minutes later. The captain, Scott Severin, was in the thick of the action as he tried to take on Pana's solid midfield and his corner was narrowly missed by Derek Young and rolled to safety.

Severin then tried his luck from distance four minutes after the half-hour mark but his shot sailed over Arkadiusz Malarz's crossbar. Pana showed their attacking intent just after the break when N'Doye broke through in the right side of the Dons penalty area and held off Alexander Diamond's challenge before shooting into the side netting.

Aberdeen were lucky not to go two goals down when N'Doye's outstretched leg narrowly failed to connect with Dimitris Salpigidis' low, right-wing cross on 55 minutes. Calderwood would have been happy to see N'Doye, who picked up a knock in the first half, depart proceedings when the lanky forward was replaced by the former Burnley striker Papadopoulos but it was Panathinaikos who continued to make more scoring chances and Alexandros Tziolis headed inches wide from a corner on 70 minutes. And it came as no surprise when Aberdeen went two goals down with 17 minutes remaining.

Ivanschitz was again the architect for Pana, playing in the substitute Papadopoulos with a defence-splitting pass which the Greece striker slotted into the right-hand corner through Langfield's legs.

Langfield was then beaten for a third time four minutes later. Mair brought down Tziolis just outside the penalty area and although Ivanschitz's curling free-kick was parried by the Dons keeper, the ball fell straight into the path of Salpingidis, who rammed home Pana's third from six yards out to cap a miserable evening for Aberdeen.

Caldwell looks forward

Gary Caldwell, the Celtic defender, admits his side need to show more ambition in attack if they are to achieve that elusive away victory in the Champions League.

Celtic dropped to the bottom of Group D after losing 1-0 to Benfica in Lisbon on Wednesday. Oscar Cardozo's 86th-minute goal extended the Scottish champions' winless run away from Parkhead in the competition to 14 games, stretching back to Martin O'Neill's time as manager.

Caldwell told Real Radio that the Scottish champions need to do more than simply contain their opponents on their travels. He said: "The desire and commitment was there from everyone but we must do better when we are on the ball.

"You can't defend for the whole 90 minutes, you must have the belief that, when you have got the ball, you can keep it off them and give people a rest."

But Caldwell did stress the importance of Artur Boruc, Celtic's Polish goalkeeper, to the Parkhead side. He said: "It's amazing. On the big nights he always comes up with big saves. We know how good he is and again he came up with some great saves against Benfica."Press Association